Amazon HQ2

Priston

Just saw that Amazon is looking to make a 2nd HQ. 50,000 jobs over the next 15 years.

Amazon HQ2
https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=17044620011

Where do you think they will go? Would you want to work there? Does the idea of building a new campus and building the infrastructure from the ground up interest you?

Clm

I live close to Denver and im hoping it comes here.

NetworkNewb

You just heard about this?!??

If I had to bet, I'd say Chicago.

stryder144

I wouldn't be surprised if Amazon put their HQ2 in the Denver area. Lot's of tech start ups, established tech companies, and a large enough population base. Not to mention, James Hetfield of Metallica lives in the area, so, you know, it has to be a great place to live!

Priston

NetworkNewb wrote: »

You just heard about this?!??

If I had to bet, I'd say Chicago.

I was living under a rock the previous times it hit the news.

I'm thinking Denver, somewhere in Texas, RTP, Atlanta, or Boston

ITHokie

NetworkNewb wrote: »

You just heard about this?!??

If I had to bet, I'd say Chicago.

Whoa - hold on to your money there, friend. Amazon has made it very clear they want a "stable and business-friendly environment." That would be the opposite of Chicago. It would take substantial incentives (which, BTW, the city can't afford) to pull out a win for Chicago. It could certainly happen, but I wouldn't bet on it.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/Anything/test/images/usa/RFP_3._V516043504_.pdf

cyberguypr

I'm not too sure about Chicago. We put in a $2bn incentive package and left the door wide open for more but there seems to be strong contenders that don't have the negative issues that we have. We'll see.

asurania

I think it will come to Calgary (Canada)

- Free Health Care - $600 Million Dollar Savings a Year
- Salary Saving for being in Canada - $1.5 Billion Saving a Year
- Lot of Ready to move in office space in Calgary, and lot of land to expand or build if they want to
- Cheap Housing
- Easy and Fast commute
- Easy Access to High Tech Workforce

LeBroke

Eh, I don't see them in Canada. Vancouver or Toronto are the only viable options in terms of population and non-Frenchness, but they have huge affordability issues that even Amazon wouldn't want to deal with (if you think Bay Area rents/real estate prices are nuts, you haven't seen Canada).

Calgary is, while a pretty nice city, is also quite small, and simply doesn't have enough local grads (there's U of Calgary, U of Alberta, that's pretty much it), and being cold, expensive compared to the US, and somewhat in the middle of nowhere, would be hard to attract people to move to. Especially execs. There's only so much -40 winters people want to deal with. Toronto is just as cold, and also has lots and lots of problems with congestion, urban sprawl, and have I mentioned affordability yet?

Vancouver isn't being serious at all with their bid. They're like "Well, we put in what we think is a fair market bid that will undoubtedly succeed on the well-known strengths of our city, but we're not going to put in incentives that are unfair to our local residents." So basically, "we have mountains so obviously everyone in the whole damn world wants to come here and look at them. LOOK AT THE MOUNTAINS!" While handing out billions to the movie industry, lol.

To be fair, wouldn't make any sense for Amazon to build another HQ in Vancouver. They'd be competing for the same labour market, have an office that's 2 hours away, and bad for BCP/DR as well since a single big earthquake could mess up both cities.

Source: live in Vancouver.

gkca

LeBroke wrote: »

Toronto is just as cold

Toronto is nowhere near as cold as Calgary, but I agree with the rest of your points.

asurania

here is a good article from CBC/Data Crunch Anaylst on why Calgary would be the number one spot in canada

Calgary would be best Canadian destination for Amazon's HQ2, data cruncher says - Calgary - CBC News


honesty i don't think there is a city that has it all

gespenstern

Chicago is unlikely, unless Bezos lost his mind. Corrupt politicians are about to bankrupt both the city and the state and not much you can do to avoid them taxing you one way or another.

Queue

I'm thinking either Raleigh, or Atlanta. If you follow companies you might have heard of Switch. Switch is building a giant data center in Atlanta. Amazon is one of their customers. Atlanta has the busiest? International airport, and public transportation. Housing is not too ridiculous and it would satisfy a west-east coast business model. There is risk of hurricanes, and high temperatures, but all else to me seems positive. If I were a gambling man, I'd put my money on Atlanta.

Raleigh is on their list, and in that area of NC, Facebook and Google already have data centers. The close proximity to Washington, DC would provide a highly trained workforce. Only issue would be public infrastructure.

SteveLavoie

I would say that my choice would an East coast cities in Canada. Either Toronto, Ottawa or Montreal. First reason for a geographic reason as their main HQ is on West Coast. Then second reason is because Canada have better immigration law that could circumvent certain limitation of US law.

On another hand, while 50K jobs will be a good thing for the country, however I am not sure it is a good thing for all other company in Canada. Salary will rise, talent will be rarer....

ITSec14

I think either Philly, Atlanta or Austin.

They can stay away from where I live though! Don't want to deal with the tax hikes and increased traffic.

NavyMooseCCNA

I am hoping they move to New Hampshire, we are far friendlier to businesses than MA is...also friendlier to employees by not having an income tax or sales tax.

Danielh22185

I bet they line it up right next to the new Facebook data center over by my house in the DFW area. No state income tax and the area is red hot for data center sites and tech jobs.

Cool news by the way!

beads

Chicago would ironically be the easiest choice because as mentioned earlier we have the most corrupt, thus openly bribable politicians outside of the third world. You want what? Oh sure we can work that.

The proposed location on the Chicago river would make recent college grads drool with envy and you have plenty of top mid-Western talent coming out of any number of not so distant and local colleges and Universities. Here at work (north burb of Chicago) is like UI Champagne-Urbana-ville.

To me whomever wins will be saddled with a massive public debt and a renown poor employer. Yes, I know some people enjoy the Amazon-atmosphere but the high turn over indicates otherwise.

- b/eads

JoJoCal19

You guys obviously don't know, our Governor will give away the farm (and everything else) to land them. Tons of land around Jacksonville to give away. The incentives and tax giveaway possibilities are endless.

Queue

@JoJoCal19

Plenty of politicians like that. I read an article that Miami was considered, however due to recent hurricanes areas like that are being discouraged. I can see Jacksonville falling victim to the hurricane scare as well.

MitM

Newark, NJ

UnixGuy

priston wrote: »

just saw that amazon is looking to make a 2nd hq. 50,000 jobs over the next 15 years.

.....

fantastic news

EANx

I think oversight of the east-coast supply-chain will play a large role. As such:

1) Philly / west-MD / No VA
2) Raleigh-Durham / RTP
3) DFW
4) Atlanta

xxxkaliboyxxx

Ireland or Texas, those sweet sweet tax breaks.

TechGromit

Don't really care, I read the Amazon working environment is outright toxic. You couldn't pay me enough to work there, life it too short to be streessed out at work every day.

Wherever it is, it will be someplace centralized for the max number of customers, I'm thinking the NJ/PA/NY metro area where 20 million potential customers live. The entire state of Texas has around 27 million people. Considering the size of Texas, we you add the states surrounding NJ/PA/NY you come up with more 55 million people living Northeast United States, in a area smaller than the state of Texas.

tedjames

I heard a rumor that Austin is on the short list. I hope not. We're way too crowded. In fact, we're full! Send it to Houston. They need the jobs.

xxxkaliboyxxx

tedjames wrote: »

I heard a rumor that Austin is on the short list. I hope not. We're way too crowded. In fact, we're full! Send it to Houston. They need the jobs.

bahahaha, I was coming home from LASCON tonight, I got stuck in traffic at 8pm!